1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage medium storing a game program and a game apparatus therefor, and more particularly, a storage medium storing a game programmed a game apparatus therefor for performing a game process in accordance with a shape of a trace inputted by a player.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, an information processing apparatus using a touch panel as an input device has been proposed, and it has been considered that a trace drawn by using a touch panel or the like is used for a game operation in a game apparatus also. That is, a game process in accordance with a shape of an input trace drawn by a player is performed in the game apparatus. For example, when the player wants a player character to use a desired magic in a roll playing game, the player inputs a trace instead of selecting a command for the magic. In a case of performing a game process in which the player character attacks an enemy character, for example, the game apparatus identifies a shape of the trace inputted by the player and performs the game process in which the player character attacks the enemy with the magic corresponding to the shape of the input trace.
In the above, the game apparatus identifies a graphic corresponding to the input trace from among graphics (i.e., reference patterns) previously prepared, and performs a game process corresponding to the identified graphic. A method for identifying a graphic corresponding to an input trace includes a method for performing a pattern matching between each of the reference patterns and the input trace and calculating a degree of similarity therebetween (e.g., see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-154224). Under the method, the game apparatus calculates a degree of similarity between a shape of a reference pattern and a shape of an input trace for each of the reference patterns, and identifies a reference pattern closest (which matches) to the input trace based on the degree of similarity. The identified reference pattern is determined as a graphic inputted by the player, i.e., a graphic indicated by the input trace.
In the above game apparatus, the player aims to perform a desired game process and inputs a reference pattern by drawing a shape thereof corresponding to the desired game process. A level of easiness in drawing the reference patterns differs depending on a shape of each reference pattern. That is, among the reference patterns, one or more graphics have shapes difficult to input, and one or more other graphics have shapes easy to input. However, for all reference patterns, a degree of similarity is calculated using a same method, and therefore, one or more graphics are easily determined as relatively high in the degree of similarity, and conversely, one or more other graphics are easily determined as relatively low in the degree of similarity. Accordingly, when the player plays a game, there is a possibility that, among a plurality of the reference patterns, one or more graphics are difficult to be recognized by the game apparatus, namely, a successful input for the one or more reference patterns in drawing is difficult to be obtained. If one or more graphics difficult to be successfully inputted as described above exist, the player feels that controllability of the game is poor, and loses his/her interest toward the game.
On the other hand, it is conceivable that there is a case in which a game producer desires to change the level of input difficulty in accordance with a content of the game or a state of the game course. That is, a case is conceivable that an input of a particular reference pattern is made especially difficult or, conversely, easy. However, under the conventional method, the level of difficulty in input of a reference pattern depends entirely on the shape thereof and cannot be freely set by the game producer. Thus, when the game producer prepares reference patterns to be inputted by a player, the reference patterns must be prepared in consideration of shapes (the level of difficulty in input) of the reference patterns, and thereby limiting a degree of freedom for the game production.